Yes… we got free stuff. Who can’t use a great desktop calendar? And when it features a lovely model like Briana, you can’t go wrong.

We have two June, 2008 calendars available in many desktop sizes. I will also give a lighting tutorial for each of the images after the break…

Our first desktop calendar features a beach shot at sunset… actually well after sunset. It was dark.

I took some exposures on auto to see where the light was and it wasn’t much. F-4 at 1/60 was a good starting place. Of course that meant that I didn’t need much light from the speedlights. I lowered the power to 1/16 on both and placed them for some dramatic lighting.

Main light is over my left shoulder and high on her. It is feathered so that it doesn’t throw a deep shadow. The way to do that is to make sure the light is at a distance so that by the time it hits the subject it is already weakening and wont have much carry beyond. While the shadow is there, it isn’t too dark, being filled in from the ambient.

The second light is set at an angle slightly behind Briana to camera right. since it is behind her, it adds no light to her front, simply adding a rim of light around her. This rim light is what gives the image such a two dimensional feel. In fact, it almost looks like a studio shot against a painted background. I knew that may happen, so I made sure Briana dug her feet into the sand so there would be no mistake that it was shot on the beach. I tweaked the light to make it a little more even and then shot the images with a wide angle lens from a low position so that I could keep the horizon low and make her stand against the sky.

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Our second image was taken in the morning after she had been rolling in the sand for a headshot. The light was going in and out of the partly cloudy day and it was high and with a bad angle for a sunlit shot. I moved her into this little opening I had seen the day before and knew it would work to frame her.

I made sure she was in a shady area, and set up one strobe on a stand. I placed it a little over her head at the same angle as the sun and far enough back that it would not be a problem in the shot. After taking a meter of the sun during one of its brief outings, I then made the strobe match that setting. That way if the sun came out on the background she would appear to be sunlit and if it didn’t she would look like she was standing in a pool of sunlight. Win win.

Using a wide angle lens I was able to pick up that cool beach grass and the ocean in the background. I had to watch for beachwalkers, and during this exposure there is a couple in the background hidden by Briana. I love the texture of the sand on her skin, and the way the light seems to fall darker down her legs. It gives an impression of a pool of light.

One speedlight can make such a difference on location shots. However, I try not to make the light look too unreal on a shot like this. Briana came up with this pose as I told her to do something soft and statuesque. Very cool.

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Thanks for visiting and make sure you come back to see what we come up with for July.